- Senate minority whip says Democrats can only slow nomination by ‘days’
- Amy Coney Barrett: what will she mean for women’s rights?
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5.29pm BST
Biden spoke briefly then answered a f...
Democrats
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: key Republicans under spotlight as fight to replace justice begins – live
- McConnell vows Senate will push on with Trump’s pick
- What does Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death mean for the supreme court?
- Obituary: ‘Formidably clever with a superhuman capacity for work’
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3.08pm BST
Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death adds even more weight to November’s elections, with both Democrats and Republicans saying that voters will not only decide the presidency but the lo...
Democratic convention live: second night begins with Jill Biden to speak
- Ocasio-Cortez praises Sanders’ campaign in nominating speech
- Colin Powell to endorse former vice-president
- Cindy McCain to detail husband’s ‘unlikely friendship’ with Biden
- Biden to be formally nominated on convention’s second night
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Ocasio-Cortez, like so many progressives, traces her political awakening to Sanders 2016 presidential campaign, where she worked as an organizer. A self-described democratic socialist, Ocasio-Cortez was elected to Congress in 2018, unseating the fourth-ranking House Democrat.
Since her shocking victory, she has helped organize and raise money for progressive challengers around the country, including Jamaal Bowman who won the Democratic primary this year, knocking off a 16-term incumbent in a deep-blue New York district.
Many progressives were furious that Ocasio-Cortez, widely viewed as the leader of a next generation of Democrats, was only allotted one minute to speak, while ample time was devoted on Monday night to Republican defectors, including former Ohio John Kasich, a staunch opponent of abortion.
Yet her invitation was a testament to influence within the party, rare for a first-term member of Congress.
Ocasio-Cortez, who endorsed Sanders in the primary, giving his campaign a much needed jolt in the uncertain days after the senator’s heart attack, has been critical of Biden’s establishment-minded approach to governing. In an interview last year, she mused that in another country, they would not belong to the same party.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s nominating speech for Bernie Sanders was a virtual passing of the torch. Sanders briefly led the primary contest earlier this year before falling impossibly behind Biden as fear of the coronavirus began to spread across the US.
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Sanders, who nearly eked out a victory in the Iowa caucuses, and then went on to win primary contests in New Hampshire, and Nevada before sweeping California on Super Tuesday, is expected to receive around 1,000 delegates.
In the same way Sanders popularized Medicare for all, she has championed the Green New Deal – both turning the issue into a rallying cry for young Democrats and an easy line of attack for Republicans. Climate is one of the key areas in which Biden has moved left, and she was included in the Biden-Sanders unity taskforces, created to forge a policy consensus between the often-warning progressive and moderate wings of the Democrtic party.
Addressing his supporters on Monday, Sanders said their movement had “moved this country in a bold new direction” but he was unequivocal in his endorsement of Biden, warning that the stakes were too high to stay home.
“The future of our democracy is at stake,” he said.
Cardi B interviews Joe Biden and tells him ‘Trump out’ is election priority
- Rapper and Biden talk politics in wide-ranging Elle interview
- Democratic nominee fails to respond to Medicare for All query
In a wide-ranging interview released on Monday, Cardi B told Joe Biden her priority for the election in November is to get “Trump out”.
Related: Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion's WAP should be celebrated, not scolded | Dream McClinton
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US politics: virtual Democratic convention to start amid coronavirus crisis – live updates
- Pelosi recalls House early to fight postal service election ‘sabotage’
- Sanders says Trump’s attacks on mail-in voting a ‘crisis for democracy’
- Virtual Democratic convention to kick off with emphasis on unity
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3.57pm BST
Eva Longoria, Tracee Ellis Ross, Kerry Washington and Julia Louis-Dreyfus will help em...
No Covid-19 stimulus package progress as Trump makes more false claims – live
- Another 1.18m Americans file for unemployment
- Deutsche Bank gave Trump records to New York prosecutors - report
- Trump claims Covid-19 will ‘go away’ as Fauci warns long road ahead
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3.13pm BST
Joe Biden made clear this morning that Se...
Trump administration asks supreme court to axe Obamacare
Democrats call legal push amid coronavirus crisis an ‘act of unfathomable cruelty’
- Coronavirus – latest updates
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The Trump administration has asked the US supreme court to invalidate the Obamacare lawthat added millions to the healthcare safety net but has been at the centre of political controversy.
The government advocate, Noel Francisco, argued in a filing late on Thursday that the Affordable Care Act (ACA), one of Ba...
Voting in the New York primary is by no means futile for Sanders supporters | Billy Richling and Francisco Navas
Voters need to understand that Sanders’ delegate candidates aren’t running against Biden’s delegate candidates – they’re running against each other
Although Joe Biden is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, voting in the New York primary on Tuesday (or during early voting) is by no means futile for progressives who were largely supporting Bernie Sanders and policies such as the Green New Deal and Medicare for All.
Related: 'Just ridiculous': what it’s like to wait five hours in line to vote in the US
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Coronavirus US live: death toll nears 80,000 as Trump rages over Russia
- Fauci and two other task force members to self-quarantine
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Precautions against Covid-19 infection have been stepped up at the White House but are hampered by the cramped and poorly ventilated conditions in the West Wing, Kevin Hassett, a special adviser to Donald Trump on the pandemic response, said on Sunday.
Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin has been talking to Fox News Sunday about the Trump administration’s attempts to reopen and restart the stalled US economy, and whether there will be another huge stimulus bill. Democrats who control the House want one of those but the White House doesn’t – that’s the short version.
The White House is “absolutely pushing for a payroll tax cut”, Mnuchin says. Most observers think that is a non-starter, because Democrats won’t let it. Payroll taxes, meaning deductions from regular paychecks, include funds for Social Security and Medicare, vital social benefits.
Related: US job losses have reached Great Depression levels. Did it have to be that way?
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Trump’s pick for federal court ‘too inexperienced’, Democrats say
Justin Walker, 37, is facing a Senate confirmation hearing as Mitch McConnell restarts push to confirm federal judges
A federal judge nominated to the nation’s second-most powerful court said on Wednesday that he was writing as an academic and commentator when he criticized as “indefensible” a supreme court ruling upholding the Affordable Care Act.
Justin Walker, a 37-year-old protege of the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, and the supreme court Justice Brett Kavanaugh...